Shortly after the Farm Aid lineup was announced, performer Jack Johnson shared his thoughts with Radio.com on why it matters.

“This will be my second time [at Farm Aid],” Johnson said. “Last year we had such a great experience doing it. It’s nice to take the spotlight that’s on you and shine it on something that’s more important than yourself.”

Johnson lives in Hawaii, where, as he explained, “my wife and I and a lot of friends have a foundation called the Kokua Hawaii Foundation. In Hawaii, 90 percent of our food is shipped in, so one of the things we try to work with kids is connecting them to their food at a really young age.”

“Once they have that connection,” he continued, “as they get older they start asking that question, ‘If we can grow so much food in Hawaii, why is so much of it shipped in?’ It gets into bigger issues about land use. There’s a lot of farm land that’s getting re-zoned and being used for redevelopment of hotels, houses and things. It’s basically taking places we can be growing food and slowly disappearing. It’s an important issue in Hawaii, dealing with the farming.”

So, he said, “being part of that national conversation with Farm Aid is nice for us to be included in that.”

Of course, he admitted there’s also a “selfish side” to participating.